•  
  •  
 

Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems (JMWAIS)

Abstract

Deepfake technology can create fabricated media that realistically depicts individuals saying or doing things they never did. While deepfake technology has many positive applications, it also has many negative applications, such as child pornography, nonconsensual sexual imagery, political misinformation, and fraud. These negative applications raise profound legal, social, and ethical concerns, prompting calls for stronger regulation. This study reviews all state-level legislation in the United States between January 1, 2018, the approximate date the term “deepfake” was popularized, and May 19, 2025, the date Congress passed the Take It Down Act, its first law criminalizing negative deepfake applications. It aims to identify how states have utilized criminal law to confront harmful deepfake applications and to document the scope and content of legislative efforts. Through comprehensive database searches and thematic coding, the authors identified 89 pieces of enacted legislation in 41 states and categorized the prohibited activities into four areas: (1) child sexual abuse material deepfakes, (2) nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, (3) election deepfakes, and (4) other emerging uses such as commercial impersonation and fraud. Further analysis reveals bipartisan sponsorship, recent rapid legislative expansion, and significant variation in statutory definitions and scope. These findings highlight the fragmented nature of US deepfake criminal law and underscore the need for consistent definitions, expanded protections, and enhanced enforcement capacity. By documenting legislative trends and shortcomings, this study informs policymakers, legal practitioners, and scholars seeking to strengthen legal frameworks against synthetic media abuse.

DOI

10.17705/3jmwa.000098

Download

Share

COinS
Open Materials badge